I remember a great deal about my time with the beavers: the stress of fighting the city, the delight of watching them build and interact, but every now and then something jars loose a detail that I had completely forgotten. It’s rare, but it happens.

This article from Alabama made it happen.

Beavers engineer new creek system at Ruffner Mountain

Wild mint grows by the stream where the beavers live at Ruffner Mountain.

The smell is crisp and alive there, and washes over a scene of renewal inside one of the most fascinating urban nature preserves in the Southeast. Ruffner Mountain was once a wasteland mined for iron ore and limestone. Now it is a refuge for wildlife and biodiversity, and a resource for Birmingham residents who need a good walk in the woods.

We could all use one these days.

Isn’t that beautiful? There was wild mint in the tiny grubby bank downstream of the main beaver dam.I remember standing there with wafts of it when I’d inhale. The beavers never seemed to eat it. But it volunteered itself into the muddy banks among the rushes. Because the homeless also used those recessed banks there were sometimes unlovely smells there too, But the mint refreshed them, and made them clean again. I had forgotten that mint.

The beavers are the newest, most exciting addition to Ruffner, and they have quickly, in a matter of months, set upon doing their beaver things. They have cleared out dozens and dozens of trees in the wetlands, and built, by my count, 13 dams.

The wetlands have expanded gradually over that time, and below the third in a series of three ponds, is where the beavers have built their run of nine dams leading into the forest. The effect of all this hard work is remarkable. What once was a tiny trickle of a spring is now a growing creek of incredible beauty.

I call it the Ruffner Mountain Beaver Locks because each dam is strategically placed to create something of a step-down system of pools like a miniature Panama Canal. Little furry geniuses, these beavers.

Oh man that sounds beautiful. No photos with this article but we can imagine the series of interlocking dams can’t we? Remember this article is from Alabama, a place not exactly famous for its beaver appreciation.

The wetlands are located on the south side of Ruffner Mountain. Most people who visit the urban nature preserve are familiar with the amazing quarries on the west side of the park and the nature center to the north. If you visit the wetlands, please be respectful of the beavers and the habit they are building.

In truth, the wetlands are not natural at all, but a consequence of the abandoned mines on the east side of Ruffner Mountain. The mines flood, and water pours out from the ground and collects in the ponds. One such mine spring is channeled through old iron piping and gushes from a release valve that looks like a relic from the 19th century.

Perhaps it kept the mines dry 100 years ago. Nature has found a new use for it now.

Downstream of that water source is where the wild mint grows in bunches, and beavers have made it their mission to create a new world amid a city on hold.

Beavers take over and make repairs. I sometimes wonder what would Alhambra Creek look like now if we hadn’t stopped them from their work. The water would have crested Castro and easily reached the County Recorder Office. Maybe it would have topped the bridges entirely and refilled that incised creek to reopen the flood plane that has been missing 100 years.

I might have looked like water world. I know it would have smelled amazing.